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Today was a test run for the Ninja Air Fryer… and the results are in. So far, in my opinion, I don’t see what the fuss is. I like that I didn’t use oil, or much of it, but the results were marginal at best. For my first attempts at using this gadget, I chose to make Home Cut Fries, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Creole Battered Shrimp. The time it took to cook everything wasn’t anything special and the end coatings were a bit odd.
My featured image shows the overall plate of food, which did taste good, but again just a bit odd. I think I expected the shrimp to turn into a golden color, but it kept it’s whitish color of the cornmeal. The fries did pretty good, but since they were not eaten immediately, they lost the crispiness that they had.
Finally, the Fried Green tomatoes did the same as the shrimp and really didn’t change colors to that nice fried-looking color. The remoulade I made was fantastic, but it had nothing to do with the air fryer. I made sure to put a lot on the sandwich under the shrimp and on the under layer of the top bun. Without it, it might have been difficult to eat with the overall taste of the coating.
Hey, did I mention that the color of the batter coating didn’t end up looking like a fried item? I think in the end, this was my biggest disappointment. Recipes for the Shrimp Po’ Boy and remoulade to follow.
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The Brown Household has a new kitchen gadget being added to its arsenal — another Ninja. This Ninja is the AF101, a 4 quart air fryer which should go along quite well with the other Ninja equipment that we have in the kitchen. So far, the other items, a blender and food processor –part of the Ninja Mega Complete Kitchen System 1500, has performed nicely! I am anxious to test it out, and plan on doing so tomorrow. See the Po’ Boy recipe’ coming up next…
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Well, the new semester is about to begin and I officially went back to work today in person. It’s been a week already from home with different questions, etc being answered, even during the break for that matter, but not yet to the college in person. For me, that’s a commute – a long one for that matter. I know, most people think, going back to work means in the classroom, working with students, shaping the future! Unfortunately, no it does not. Nope, not even close. Instead, I helped close out Day 3 of our bullpen advising session… for seven hours (originally scheduled for six!)
The thing that most people don’t understand about teaching is that there is more to the job besides just teaching. One could always assume there’s prep time, teaching time, office time, etc. but it’s the other things that aren’t often thought about when someone asks what all we do. For instance, the advising session today wasn’t just for CIT students, it was for everyone. I helped advise primarily students as it’s my forte’, but I also helped transfer students, Associate of Arts degree students, Associate of Science degree students and even those just wanting to make changes to their schedule. Without getting these students registered, spending time with them, asking questions, we wouldn’t have students to teach. I believe we registered 1200 students over these three days.
I love what I do. I love being able to help students, but some days, a three and a half hour drive there and back feels longer than other days… today was one of those days!
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What could have been a bloody nightmare has finally completed and in record time. At this point, I have spoken with my program liaison, who also happen to be the Online Coordinator for the Business Programs (this was new to me, it just happened!) and was able to discuss everything in the email sent. I sent it to her first, before forwarding to the Dean, to ensure that it was written appropriately and substantiated the grade given. In short, after about an hour, it was discussed and she agreed it was good. She would forward this to the Dean and we began our wait.
Today, only a day later, the Dean sent his letter… he agreed with the Online Coordinator and myself that the grade given was indeed earned. Now, if you are not in education, you may think this is normal. Believe me it is not. It could have gone several ways, and in many cases, could have dragged on further. In today’s budget-poor climate, many administrators might side with the student for fear of that student leaving, taking with them their tuition dollars. I could have been “asked” to change the grade, give more time to accept another attempt, re-grade the papers, and who knows what else.
Now that it is over, I need to inform the student (who never informed me!) of the Dean’s decision of denying the appeal. I’m interested to see what the student may say, but that’s for another day. For now, I’ll be happy that it is mostly over.
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Time is almost up from our Winter Break… and as always, it was too short. Anticipation of things that were to get done, oh such wonderful thoughts come to mind from back at the end of November… Hopes of those fun things that would be done together, a short trip here or there, a visit to family or friends; perhaps, even a party at the house with friends. Alas, like many other breaks that come and go, very little was done to really set this break apart from the rest.
As a teacher, our time is usually divided from one semester to another, one break from another, one week to the next or even a module of work to another module. In short, our time is segmented and as such, so goes our lives — living from Segment A to Segment B. How should we be living? How is it that we are always looking ahead for Segment B without wishing away Segment A? How do we get to where we live “in the moment” instead? It’s these questions and more that I hope to get answers during this writing project.
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Well, the initial email sent has now been replied to. Amazingly, it only took an hour and a half to two hours of my life, mind you, time I am not paid for. Additionally, the Appeal process should have been completed six weeks after the end of the semester which means it should have been completed before the end of November. In other words, this should not even be “a thing” right now as the deadline for grade appeal has passed per rules and procedures. Ever wonder what the process is? Here is a basic timeline of the process:
- Within two weeks of the end of the course, the student should provide a grade appeal in writing to the faculty member who assigned the grade and attempt to resolve the issue.
- If no resolution of the grade dispute is achieved after Step 1; the student should discuss the matter with the department chairperson. In this case, the function of the chairperson will be to attempt to determine the relevant facts and mediate the disagreement.
- If no resolution is achieved at Step 2; the student or the faculty member may refer the whole matter to the Dean of the School, whose function it will be to mediate the disagreement. The Dean will confer privately with the faculty member and with the student, and may call additional witnesses if this is deemed important. Following this process, the Dean will communicate a decision to the faculty member, who will communicate that decision to the student. This step is the final step in the appeal process.
- It is expected that a final decision will generally be made within the first six weeks of the following semester or the first three weeks of the following session. The instructor and the student should resolve grading conflicts regarding individual assignments during a semester.
So far, I have now sent my initial reply to my program liaison, so that it can be reviewed, revised and then sent on to the next layer of Administration. Long story short, the work was not completed correctly when done and some not done at all. It’s a shame really. Want to add more to it? The student through in a side comment in which I was also accused of not liking military students. I am former military, so that line was slightly humorous, but probably more “how dare you” than anything else in my mind.
There was a time when students received a grade they earned and earned the grade they received. Hopefully this will play out as I hope and there won’t be any consequences for dealing with this. Afterall, an adjunct is never guaranteed a future contract.
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Well, it was bound to happen. After working in education for more than twelve years I finally had my first student formally ask for a grade appeal from administration. Granted, it’s not my full-time gig, but instead one of the places where I adjunct at. I’m anxious to see how administration will handle the situation considering the deadline to submit an appeal has already passed to begin with. Anyhow, a quick run down of the situation….
This class has a lot of writing involved and students are expected to use APA format. In fact, students should already know how to use it and have passed classes in the past writing papers at this college. Most of the students in this class are getting ready to graduate as it is a JR-SR level class so I would expect decent work. This past semester, that expectation was not met. In fact, it was so bad, I had to seek assistance from my program contact, the librarian and the student services (read as tutoring service) to assist in the various issues going on as in many cases it would be considered an academic integrity issue.
Examples of this include:
- Improperly formatted citation(s) within a document
- Improper in-text citation
- Partial paraphrase, makes an attempt but lacks understanding
Now, after the initial issues, if it happened again, it moves from a minor infraction to a standard infraction which comes with an automatic failure for the course. So, how do you think I handled it to begin with? Nicely, I would think. Instead of reporting, I chose to allow students to work with tutoring, librarians, etc. They were then informed if they did it again, they would receive zeroes on their papers. Any guesses what happened? Yep, you’ve got it right. Same issues repeated, paper received a zero, student complains.
So, here we go on the roller coaster. So far, the division chair has sent an email with an initial look at the situation. However, the details were not looked at. (I always leave comments as to why zeroes are given, these weren’t seen nor referenced…) Tomorrow will be a phone call with my program coordinator so we shall see. My hope is that administration will back up even the lowly adjunct as the student did not earn a different grade.
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A great feature included in IOS12, Scheduling Do Not Disturb, has been a fantastic addition to the iPhone for most of us that want to schedule after-hours for our phones but if there is an emergency, we’d like to still be notified. What’s great about the feature is that it allows for those in your favorites list or even those that repeat call will be allowed through. What it doesn’t intuitively do is allow that other form of communication — the text! — through. If you have family or friends that would die before calling, they would be out of luck unless you find this other feature.
Emergency Bypass! Introduced in IOS10, you’ll need to implement this if you want the texts to roll through. It’s not hard to do, but you’ll need to pay attention to do it correctly. The steps are as follows:
- Launch Contacts from your Home screen.
- Tap on the contact you want on Emergency Bypass.
- Tap Edit.
- Tap Ringtone.
- Tap the Emergency Bypass switch. The switch should be green when it’s enabled.
- Tap Done.
- Tap Done again.
Once you’ve done this, you’ll now receive calls and text messages regardless of what state you’ve left your phone in.
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How sweet has today been? Look no further than Dalia’s face! She’s so excited seeing what’s in one of her Christmas Gift boxes we had bought for her. She’s such a sweet girl… not ours directly, but we love her just the same. It’s always great when we get to see her (and her Mommy of course!) as she brings a joy that only a child can bring — with wide eyes and a bright smile!
We’ve made it a tradition the last three years to go to a local pizza place, get the party special and let Dalia have her fun. She does amazingly well with temptation not far away! Getting her to eat can be fun, as she looks from her plate to the presents, back and forth as she must make a decision. It’s funny how we will do the same things at times, it might not be presents or food necessarily, but choices that we do make.
For instance, “Will I work over to earn a little extra money?” or how about, “Will I stay up late and finish some task or scramble in the morning to get it done?” Choices. We all have them to make and how we deal with the consequences can affect the rest of our lives at times. Dalia had it easy. Jacque made her a deal (her words), “For every two bites of pizza, you can open one gift.”You see, we had a choice to make. Let Dalia, and her four and a half year old mind take over the situation, or let one of us do it. Jacque was raised by parents who always gave her choices; such as: “If you want this, then this” or, “You can have this or that.” By using this strategy, it eliminates the child from coming up with their own solution which may not work and it also allows an end to what could be a difficult situation. Believe it or not, Dalia was thrilled with the bargain she was given and ate what was necessary to tear into her gifts — and a good time was had by all.
I hope as these days continue rolling forward into weeks, months, and years… and inevitably I am faced with choices that I look at it not as what I am choosing now, but also what consequences may occur due to my choices. Hopefully, it will be just as easy as Dalia had it today!
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Today is January 1 and like everyone else it seems, there is an air about the place for change. What changes? Who knows… BUT I can say that things will change, it’s the only thing I know for certain! This is the beginning of what I hope to be at the very least a year-long writing project among the various blogs (read that as domains I own) that I have and do not actively participate except to design. I’ve wanted this to change for a long time and there’s no better time than the first day of a new year.
Needless to say, there may be post that will show up here, or any of the other blogs I will be writing to depending on what it is I am wanting to write about. Maybe I’ll share this with people, maybe this will remain hidden in plain sight… all I know is that I’ll be working towards making this the year!
